Unity Day, hosted by Planet Kreyol, the Haitian student organization, will take place Nov. 11 from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. in the UC. The day will consist of arts and crafts, lunch, a cultural showcase, a special speaker and an after-party celebration. For more information contact Roselande Marcellon at 954-298-6670 or by email at roselandem@hotmail.com.
Elsewhere – Bill would audit colleges for tuition increases
The Maneater (U. Missouri)
(U-WIRE)-An amendment to the Higher Education Act being considered this session would penalize colleges for consistent, large tuition increases.
U.S. Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon of California proposed the amendment which would set penalties for universities that consistently raise tuition at a rate higher than the “College Affordability Index” established by the law.
The amendment defines the index at twice the rate of inflation based on the Consumer Price Index, or CPI, which measures the cost of consumer goods in major urban areas.
Under the bill, “an institution that increases its tuition and fees more than two times the CPI for an interval of three years would have to provide an explanation of the factors contributing to the increase and a management and action plan on how to reduce increases in its costs and tuition fees,” according to a news release by McKeon’s office. McKeon’s spokesman did not return a phone call Thursday afternoon.
UMNEWS
Author Salman Rushdie coming to campus
Author Salman Rushdie, winner of several international literary prizes and awards, will give a speech on “At what Cost Safety? Today’s Moral Compass” Nov. 14 at 6 p.m. in the Storer Auditorium. At the event, Rushdie will discuss the threat of modern terrorism. Doors will open at 5:15 p.m., and no cellphones or backpacks will be allowed.
School of Nursing appoints director
The School of Nursing and Health Studies has appointed Jay K. Ober as director of simulation education, announced Nilda Peragallo, dean of the school. Ober will oversee simulation activities and program development for the Simulation Center in the new M. Christine Schwartz Center for Nursing and Health Studies.
Ober is a recognized leader in the field of simulation educaton. Before joining the School, he introduced patient simulation into the United States Air Force Reserves (USAFR), where he now serves as a tactical Flight Nurse Instructor and newly appointed Chief of Patient Simulation.
Requiem for a tree
Many students may know little about the Baobab tree. Found in Madagascar, northern Australia and some parts of Africa, this tree can live to be over one thousand years old. Students may also be surprised to hear that, until recently, this exotic tree specimen was just a short walk away-one of the many members of the John C. Gifford Arboretum collection that was lost during this year’s tumultuous hurricane season.
Last Wednesday the Arboretum Committee, a group made up of faculty, staff and students, held a meeting to celebrate the importance of the cactus family in the world and, on a more serious note, to discuss the future of the Gifford Arboretum in light of the recent damage to campus.
The Gifford Arboretum was planted in 1947 and contained a representative set of important tropical plant families as well as a nearly complete set of the tropical trees native to South Florida.
After Hurricane Katrina hit campus at the beginning of the semester, a survey showed that 21 percent of the Gifford Arboretum’s collection was lost in the storm. No estimate for the damage caused by Hurricane Wilma was available yet, but Carol Horvitz, professor of biology and arboretum director, said that the arboretum suffered more at the hands of the chainsaw crews cleaning up after Wilma than the actual storm winds.
Though much of the arboretum was destroyed after Hurricane Wilma, some trees that had been knocked down by winds were deemed salvageable. These trees were marked with ribbons indicating that they were not to be cut down.
However, according to Horvitz, due to miscommunication with the FEMA crew, some trees that were marked for saving were accidentally cut down. After realizing this, Horvitz returned to the arboretum with the cleanup crews to personally show them which trees were meant to be salvaged.
As recently as last Monday, 10 days after Hurricane Wilma hit campus, Horvitz noticed that a rare tree, the Mexican Alvaradla, had been marked for saving but had still been cut down. This time, however, Horvitz said the campus’ grounds management crew had been responsible.
“I truly believe this behavior is indicative of an attitude that does not support the academic mission of these collections,” Horvitz said. “Trees dying is not less important than winning a football game.”
Allan Weber, the director of contract administration for the University, stated that the cutting down of arboretum trees was an accident on UNICCO’s part, as the crews had been told to just remove broken branches from the arboretum during the campus cleanup. However, due to the massive scale of the cleanup project as well as the large number of crews working around campus at one time, the message seemed to have been lost.
“When you’re dealing with 250 acres and a time limit to get the campus up and running again, accidents like these will happen,” Weber said.
At the Arboretum Committee meeting held last Tuesday, plans were discussed in order to remedy the situation so as to prevent any future mishaps with the arboretum collection. All agreed that the University needed to develop more radical post- and pre-hurricane protocol in order to preserve the arboretum’s tropical trees.
John Cozza, a graduate student heading the undergraduate outreach program for the committee, said he believes that the problem lies in the fact that there is no post-hurricane procedure for the arboretum that is separate from the procedure used to care for the rest of the campus landscape.
“People need to understand that the arboretum is not just a landscape-it is a collection of trees that must be preserved,” he said.
Marina Nazir can be contacted at m.nazer@umiami.edu.
CALENDAR
Today
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Learn about Breast Cancer from Dr. Stefan Gluck, Clinical Director of the Braman Family Breast Cancer Institute, at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. The lecture will take place at 7 p.m. in LC 140.
Starting today, requests to use the Rathskeller for the spring semester will begin. Stop by UC 209 or call 305-284-6399 to reserve space for your event.
Give back to the community by donating cans to the United Black Students Canned Food Drive. Donations will be accepted starting today in UC 215.
WEDNESDAY
The Longest Yard, the CAC movie of the week, will be shown at the Cosford Cinema at 8 and 10 p.m.
Come taste the flavors of the tropics as Chef Rafael Marrero demonstrates Caribbean cooking in the Wellness Center kitchen from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. Enjoy dinner after you’ve learned to create an entire meal from start to finish. The program is open to University of Miami students, faculty, staff and alumni, as well as to members of the community.
THURSDAY
Patio Jams presented by Hurricane productions will take place on the UC Patio from noon to 1:30 p.m.
Ralph Reed, who has worked on seven presidential campaigns for the Republican party, will speak on “Values and Politics in America” at 6:30 p.m. in the Storer Auditorium.
Come to the Wesley Coffeehouse in the Wesley Center and enjoy live music and free coffee from 9 to 11 p.m.
Students complain of botch-ups in apartment area cleanup
Serious problems such as leaks and mold in the apartment area have been made worse after the hurricanes and have not been fixed by the University, two students living there said.
Chloe Daley, junior, said her apartment was rife with problems, which were only aggravated by the storms.
“[Before Katrina] we called in, saying we had really bad leaks,” she said. “The lady at 8-CARE said they’d fix our showerhead but not our windows.”
Daley said that upon following up on the problem, 8-CARE denied making that statement.
Additionally, Daley said that there is mold in the apartment, and that after showering, “me and my roommate would go to sleep and start wheezing. We called both Housing and 8-CARE, and they said ‘no, there’s no mold,’ even though this isn’t normal.”
Mold doesn’t seem to be the only problem in the apartments.
“My roof fell in on my apartment, and I was going to the airport, and it was the guys below me who called and told me,” Alexsandra Skulte, junior, said. “The school hasn’t called me. I had to go to the housing department and they told me I’ve been moved.”
Skulte said she felt cheated by the school.
“I think that for the amount of money that we pay to this school, the school should be responsible enough to make sure these buildings are structurally sound,” she said. “Somebody could have gotten seriously injured or died.”
However, Jon Baldessari, associate director of residence halls, said he hasn’t heard of such complaints.
“I haven’t heard anything about mold. I would encourage these students to come to the housing department if they have specific concerns,” he said.
Baldessari, who made it clear that it was work being done on the roof, not the hurricanes, that caused the cave-ins, said the cleanup and repair efforts are going well.
“We’ve been out in that area every day after the storm, working with Physical Plant,” he said. “Every time I walk around, I see a lot of work being done.”
Vic Apherton, assistant vice president for facility administration, saw one of the caved-in apartments and estimated repairs would be complete soon.
“The place is a mess, but the students were vacated,” he said.
Regardless, Daley is still dissatisfied and is considering legal action.
“They never tore out the bathroom ceiling. They just globbed white paint over it, or at least that’s what it looks like,” she said. “I’m not living on campus next year.”
Jay Rooney can be contacted at j.rooney@umiami.edu.
Help for students still without electricity
The office of Commuter Student Affairs has compiled a list of available resources for commuter students that are still without power due to Hurricane Wilma.
Resources include the shower facilities in the Wellness Center and University Center Pool locker rooms, computer labs in the residential halls and most schools and the Richter Library, UC Lounges, Storm Surge Caf
Students, teachers adjust to extra school days brought on by hurricanes
Students and faculty have mixed reactions to the decision by University officials to end an already odd semester without the usual week and a half of all-night cram sessions.
On Oct. 28, after Hurricane Wilma forced the campus to close for a week, the academic deans, leaders of the faculty senate, president of student government and vice president for student affairs decided that class time needed to be added to the end of the semester.
Eight days of reading and exam days are now regular class days to make up for time lost due to the three hurricanes that cancelled classes this fall. Classes end on December 14, originally the last exam day, with the recommendation that non-cumulative finals be held during class hours.
“It’s a unique situation that’s arisen and we’re all trying to work around what has been an interesting semester,” said Steven Ullmann, vice provost for faculty affairs, who was on the board that made the decision.
However, the adjusted schedule is not being followed by some professors, who prefer to work within their own timetable.
“Most of my professors are ending on the eighth or ninth and not having class the rest of time,” Blaise Carpenter, sophomore, said. “I kind of like it and dislike it because on one hand we end earlier, and on the other we have to study all at once for four or five tests in two days.”
But the majority of professors are adhering to the guidelines in order to allow more time for instruction.
“My teachers are mostly just following the suggestions of the University and they’re not giving cumulative finals, which I don’t like because I always do better on the cumulative exams,” Ezra Katz, senior, said.
Some students feel that the new schedule will be helpful when it is time to take exams.
“My tests aren’t back to back, so it made my work easier,” Katie Lewitt, freshman, said. “I know a lot of people who are struggling with it, but not me.”
That sentiment is not shared by several others, who are not happy with their new testing situation.
“I didn’t benefit at all. It’s a much shorter [winter] break for me and I still have tests in every class,” Lani Hanfield, sophomore, said. “I’d rather take final exams and be out of here by the sixth.”
Paul Wilson, a music theory professor, said that he believes everyone is doing their best to cope with the lost time and altered schedule.
“We’ve all had to deal with unprecedented, unavoidable interruptions this whole semester,” he said. “I am certainly grateful for the additional class time so that I can take my students as far as possible into the course material.”
Some professors are offering additional help to their students in order to better adjust to the changes in the schedule.
“I am available for my students for extra tutoring,” Marie Cheour, an associate professor in the department of psychology, said. “But I am sure that it is very stressful for many students that we had to change the syllabus and exam dates.”
Greg Linch can be contacted at g.linch@umiami.edu.
EXTRA
BOUND TO HAPPEN
So we knew it was going to happen, but the word is out and director Oliver Stone is the first one to start filming a movie about September 11 in New York. The story will follow one of two policemen and their survival of the tower’s collapse and their rescue. One of the policemen is said to be Nicholas Cage.
THE SAGA CONTINUES
For anyone who is still an R.Kelly fan, stop. The DVD of the first 12 chapters of “Trapped in a Closet” was released this past week and its rumored that there are still more to come. By the time R.Kelly stops he might as well have written a novel.
Fall in love with The Time Traveler’s Wife
Anyone who has taken a creative writing class has been urged to “create a space” when writing about fantasy elements-to write a story that makes the preposterous seem possible. This is something that Audrey Niffenegger accomplishes in The Time Traveler’s Wife. While the novel’s title suggests cheesy science fiction, this isn’t cyber-nerd rubbish we’re dealing with here; Niffenegger takes an abstract concept and turns it into a fleshed-out love story with realistic characters, down to the most minute details.
While Niffenegger writes The Time Traveler’s Wife as an alternating narration between Henry DeTamble and his wife Clare, as the title suggests, the story is essentially Clare’s. Henry, a librarian in Chicago’s Newberry Library, suffers from chrono-displacement syndrome, which causes him to time travel during moments of heightened stress or emotion. The novel traces Henry and Clare’s love affair, beginning from their first meeting in the present.
The flow of the novel can be a bit confusing at times with changing dates due to time travel and alternating narrators, but Niffenegger conveniently marks the beginning of each chapter with the year it takes place. The plot progresses steadily despite the flip-flopping narrators as the chapters begin to explain events in Henry and Clare’s past and future as the reader pieces together the lives they build in the present. For example, at one point, Henry lovingly thinks about a scar on Clare’s body in one chapter, the origins of which he comes to learn during a time traveling episode in a later chapter.
Niffenegger turns potentially hokey moments are into literary beauty during her most exceptional passages describing Clare’s artistic paper-making endeavors and Henry’s time travel. As Henry describes returning to his present, Niffenegger writes, “For an instant I see the metal grid that separates the front of the car from the back, the cracked vinyl seats, my hands in the cuffs, my gooseflesh legs… Everything shimmers [iridescent butterfly wing colors]… before my eyes, the police car vanishes.”
Although the reader knows the ending of the novel as it draws near due to Henry’s time travel, Niffenegger builds tension and delves into emotions that cut to the core of the human existence by using words that evoke feelings of lust, love, fear, desperation, frustration, impatience, and more. The result is a moving story sure to touch even the most stoic of readers.
Hannah Bae can be contacted at h.bae@umiami.edu.
Kaci Brown has identity crisis on debut album
On her debut album, Instigator, 17-year-old Kaci Brown may be undergoing an identity crisis. The Texas-raised Brown entered the pop scene in August 2005, seemingly undecided in her direction. Listening to the short, just-over-40-minute CD can have your head spinning, making you think you’re hearing anyone and everyone from Mandy Moore, Jessica Simpson, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears.
Unquestionably talented, singer/songwriter Brown landed her publishing deal at age 13 and taught herself the piano and guitar. The ballads of “Cadillac Hotel” and “You Fool” help widen her appeal from the vocals and the beats of title track “Instigator” and “The Waltz.” However, despite her best efforts to emerge as a crossover artist, the seemingly childish lyrics quickly define Brown as just another pop artist directed towards the teeny-bopper audience.
On her website, Kaci describes her first single, “Unbelievable” as a song “about the crazy things love makes you do, it’s about being in the shadow and believing things that you know can’t be true,” hinting at a more astute and emotional artist than her lyrics would presume.
Brown has worked endorsements for Star Jeans and Hollister, and under the direction of producer and co-writer Toby Gad, who has worked with artists such as Enrique Iglesias and Willa Ford, She toured with the Backstreet Boys during their summer 2005 tour and starts her our mall tour this November.
With the right direction, Brown can harness her vocal range and musical talent and become more then just another pop artist, but until then, Instigator falls in the ranks with other wannabe teenage acts.
Bari Lieberman can be contacted at b.lieberman@umiami.edu.
WHERE THE PARTY STARTS
Automatic VIP anywhere and everywhere on South Beach: if only the life was that easy. The deep circles around the eyes and the look of complete body exhaustion is not what you would expect your typical party promoter to look like. As full time students and full time party promoters, there is little room for free time for anyone involved in the business of partying.
“Everyone thinks it’s easy but you’re only as good as your last party,” NOK promoter Shaun Gold said. That is entirely true because in the eyes of club owners, promoters prove their worth through long guest lists, high tabs (from guests of course) and the ability to really market themselves and their ability to be the perfect host.
As a result, Facebook mailboxes, inboxes and mailboxes have been filled with constant party invites from Ryan Van Milligen’s company Elite Entertainment and Shaun Gold because that is their job: to get people out at the clubs and to have a good time.
“We make the club money. Anyone who comes to my events I’ll treat the same, whether it’s a college student or a star,” Van Milligen said.
While the perks are nice-partying at popular downtown and South Beach clubs such as Mansion, Nocturnal and Amika four to five nights a week and hanging out with stars like Jamie Foxx and Nikki Hilton, things like sleep and time for friends seem to fall through the cracks.
“I pride myself on making sure everyone has a good time,” Gold said. “When you’re on my list there is minimal if any wait and you get in for free.”
Party promoters have to be outgoing, friendly and appealing, according to Van Milligen. They have to have the charisma to get people to come out to the events, stay at events and continue to come to events.
“I am the owner, CEO and CFO of Elite Entertainment and Events, Ultrahost events and Rush Productions. We are one of the biggest promotion companies in Miami and South Beach,” Van Milligen said. “I’ve thrown parties for Shaq and Jamie Foxx and we’re looking to expand to New York, Los Angeles, Vegas and Chicago within the next couple of years.”
Long hours and late nights make a party promoter experience college life very differently than most students; time management is key. Gold is a junior entrepreneurship major and Van Milligen is a senior business finance, pharmacy and entrepreneurship major. “Five days a week I’m out till 5am the earliest. It’s hard on girlfriends and close friends. It’s a lot of stress but that’s the industry, you live off each party,” Van Milligen said.
If you are interested in attending one of the events or think party promoting is right for you, you can email Gold at umnightlife@yahoo.com or Van Milligen at eliteentmiami@aol.com.
“This is my life, you can always contact me. I have two cell phones, email accounts and screen names,” Gold said. “I’m always available.”
Bari Lieberman can be contacted at b.lieberman@umiami.edu.
how to survive the worst-case scenario, party-style:
HOW TO HAIL A TAXI
This is easy: call the cab ahead of time and make sure to stand outside so no one steals it from you.
HOW TO CURE A HANGOVER
Drank a little too much the night before? Preventively, before you go out, you should make sure to eat a full meal and drink lots of water throughout the night. But inevitably you wake up with a headache so try drinking some Gatorade or visiting the local Jamba Juice for a shot of wheatgrass…or just go back to sleep.
BLISTERS FROM HEELS
They made the outfit, you absolutely had to wear that perfect pair of heels, but after a night of dancing, they don’t seem so perfect anymore. All you have to do to cure the blisters is rub on some Neosporin, cover them with a band-aid and leave them alone. No matter what anyone tells you, do not pop them, as it will not make them heal faster.
WALK OF SHAME
So the night carried on to the next morning and now you need to go back to your dorm. Borrow clothes if you can; walking back in gym shorts or even an undershirt and dress pants (boys, remember that jeans are acceptable as “party” attire) is better than the previous night’s outfit. Or if you are lucky, demand a ride back or call a friend to pick you up. Either way, it’s not that shameful, so don’t worry.